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Does it seem like your house is getting smaller each week? If you can’t bear the thought of getting rid of your stuff, this is bound to happen.
Hoarding doesn’t just mean you have a messy home. It’s a health issue. In fact, a hoarding disorder can lead to anxiety, depression, and isolation.
Fortunately, there are steps you can take to reverse this behavior. If we have your attention, keep reading. We’re going over some tips on how to stop hoarding for good.
If things have been piling up for a while, there’s no sense trying to tackle it all in one day. You’ll just end up getting frustrated.
Instead, set small goals and complete them before moving to the next area. This will make the process easier and also boost your confidence.
Plan on clearing out a small section of a room or closet. Make that the only thing you focus on for that day.
You could also set a schedule each time you work. For example, make it a point to spend one hour on a room each day.
Getting control of a hoarding problem is all about organization. You’ll need to make some serious decisions while you work.
Obviously, you’re not going to throw away everything you own. However, as you start clearing out space, you need to also start organizing the things you keep.
Look into buying storage containers and shelves that will help you keep things from piling up again. You also need to start organizing things by room.
Once you start organizing, you can start cleaning. If this is too much for you, learn more about services that can help you out.
Sentimental items will probably pose the biggest issue for you. It’s hard to get rid of something that’s attached to a memory.
A good way to approach this is to scale down instead of trying to get rid of it all. Form piles, each with a level of importance.
When creating these piles, ask yourself what kind of value each item carries. If you haven’t thought about or used an item in years, there’s no reason to keep it.
Once you’ve scaled down enough, you can actually display the items that made the cut.
Once you’ve taken back control of your home, you’ll need to implement some new practices to avoid a hoarding relapse.
Set a rule that every time you bring a new item into your home, you have to get rid of something else. This prevents old, unused things from piling up again.
You should also clean and organize your home every week. Doing it on a regular basis keeps the job manageable. This helps you avoid getting stressed and overwhelmed.
If you’ve had a hoarding problem for years, you probably don’t realize how much more pleasant an organized life is. It may be hard to let go of things at first, but your new environment will be well worth the struggle.
Use these tips on how to stop hoarding and turn your home into a space you’ll appreciate.
When you’re ready to give your interior design a facelift, check out these home décor articles for ideas.
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Sharing the road with large trucks and trailers can not only be intimidating for motorists, but it can also be dangerous considering the size comparison between a semi and a standard vehicle.
According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), there were a total of 3,986 fatalities in large truck accidents in 2016. While the majority of the fatalities were motorists and their passengers (66%) 17% of the deaths were truck drivers and their passengers.
More than half of the large trucks involved in the accidents had a defect such as faulty brakes or tires. According to Stephen C. Swain, VA car accident injury lawyer, heavy cargo loads in a large truck can also make it more difficult for drivers to operate the truck safely.
Inclement weather was a contributing factor in about 15% of accidents involving a large truck. According to Benjamin Sansone, a truck wreck lawyer in Missouri, other factors include driver distraction, drowsiness, and other reckless behaviors.
Where Are the Most Trucking Accidents?
Accidents involving large trucks are possible anywhere in the U.S., but there are some highways that are more dangerous than others; here are some of the most common highways where large truck accidents occur.
According to Ronald J. Jebaily, a SC truck accident lawyer, accidents involving a large truck driver are more frequent on major interstates I-20, I-26, and I-95; many of the accidents that occur on these South Carolina interstates result in death. SC-25 is also a dangerous road for truckers and other motorists.
According to Florida truck accident lawyer, Jerrad Ohr, I-95 and US-1 in Florida are on the Department of Transportation’s “top ten” list of the most dangerous roads for accidents involving a large truck driver.
Other highways that have the highest volume of large truck accidents include:
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), other states where trucking accidents are common to include North Dakota, Wyoming, and Texas.
Although these major highways and interstates can be difficult to avoid, it’s best to avoid these roads when possible, such as late-night hours and during bad weather. The holiday seasons are also more dangerous because of increased traffic and truck drivers that are rushing to meet deadlines.
Even though truck drivers are often responsible for accidents, other motorists become impatient and drive aggressively putting themselves at risk (as well as truck drivers).
Other ways to reduce your risk of being involved in an accident involving a large truck is to keep a safe distance from the truck and avoid driving in blind spots. It’s best to follow the rules of the road and remember that since larger truck drivers have more challenges driving a bigger vehicle, they drive more slowly and take longer to brake. While most people consider themselves safe drivers, most car crashes are caused by driver error, so make sure you’re doing everything you can to avoid crashes.
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People consume their cannabis in many ways, and they have been doing so for eons. For ages, they have enjoyed its multiple recreational and medical benefits. But, cannabis has only recently come under serious research and scrutiny.
Cannabis remains under an unjustified stigma, a cloud that keeps universities from doing the extensive, comprehensive, and long-term studies necessary to debunk some myths attached to cannabis. Central to those misconceptions is whether cannabis consumption affects your hormone levels.
Fortunately, Israeli chemist Raphael Mechoulam would make discoveries and define the direction of future research in the 1960s from the Hebrew University. U.S. News says, Israel “has become an international leader in cannabis research, partly fueled by the world’s highest percentage of financial resources devoted to research.”
The fundamental research helps you make the right choice
Dr. Mechoulam and colleagues—Lumír Ondřej Hanuš, William Devane, Shimon Ben-Shabat, and others—made major and lasting discoveries making Israel the go-to research center for interested scholars and investors.
Summarizing their work is a challenge; hopefully, this will help readers. Mechoulam and his team would synthesize the cannabis plant’s chemistry for the first time. This allowed them to identify the psychoactive component, a cannabinoid labeled THC (△9-Tetrahydrocannabinol or C₂₁H₃₀O₂,). Perhaps more important, they would find that THC integrates and exchanges signals with the human endocannabinoid system (ECS). And, the configuration of THC confirms the calming counteraction of CBD (cannabidiol or C21H30O2).
Much later, he determined how cannabinoids match over to the human’s largest receptor system, the endocannabinoid system (ECS). The ECS spreads intricately through the brain and body functioning with all organs and glands.
He later identified anandamide, the “bliss” molecule. It’s a naturally-produced endocannabinoid functioning like the THC cannabinoid. The THC binds with the brain’s CB1 and CB2 neuroreceptors to reduce the natural absorption of anandamide keeping the bliss around to enjoy at various levels of euphoria.
With the tools inherited from Mechoulam’s research, things get clearer. For instance, different strains of cannabis have different effects on brain and body reflecting the ratio of THC and CBD. For another, different effects follow different consumption methods. And, finally, effects vary greatly with individuals’ metabolism, body type, weight, gender, and more.
Understanding the hormone
The question here is how cannabinoids affect hormone levels, and the answer depends on the mechanics of action. It helps to understand the hormone system is part of the ECS centered in the thyroid, parathyroid, and adrenal glands but controlled by the pituitary gland and the brain’s hypothalamus.
Hormones develop bones and muscle, support brain health, and initiate other functions. When the flow of hormones is out of whack, it results in conditions like diabetes and thyroid problems. But, when the pituitary and hypothalamus are working well, they form the HPG axis (hypothyroid-pituitary-gonadotropin axis) responsible for releasing GnRH (gonadotropin releasing hormone). The process triggers production of hormones like estrogen, progesterone, androgen, and testosterone. These originate in the gonads and are present in both sexes in different proportions.
The cannabinoids from cannabis mimic endocannabinoids. They modulate, change, or reduce the transmission of nervous system messages, including those to and from the endocrine system managing the production and deployment of hormones. Now, both ovaries and testes hold large numbers of cannabinoid receptors. So, there’s every reason to believe cannabinoids can affect male and female sexual performance and fertility.
Regular-to-heavy use of cannabis may:
Work reported in Neurobiology of Disease notes, “cannabinoid exposure could have profound effects on the function of the reproductive system, lactation, metabolism, and on the endocrine stress axis.”
Beyond this, you will find that serious research on cannabis is often contradictory. People will cherry-pick the research to support almost any position forgetting the laboratory studies use various animals, from toads to monkeys, making the results inconsistent. For example, you can read more here about the rumored connection between cannabis consumption and the testosterone imbalance creating gynecomastia in men in which 50 percent of the tests found a connection while 50 percent did not.
5 things you can do:
Your interest and work should help you understand how cannabis consumption affects hormone levels. It should tell you how your systems metabolize cannabis smoke differently than edibles. It should help you appreciate the options of consumption with tinctures, oils, and capsules.
The study will show you how occasional use affects hormonal systems differently than habitual use does. It opens you to what and how THC influences and how and what CBD levels your anxiety, stress, and pain. If the only thing you walk away with is an understanding that cannabis does affect hormone levels and that balanced consumption makes the most sense, you have learned a lot.
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